Welcome Guest! If you are already a member of the BMW MOA, please log in to the forum in the upper right hand corner of this page. Check "Remember Me?" if you wish to stay logged in.

We hope you enjoy the excellent technical knowledge, event information and discussions that the BMWMOA forum provides.
Why not take the time to join the club, so you can enjoy posting on
the forum, the club magazine, and all of the discounts and benefits the BMWMOA offers?Want to read the MOA monthly magazine for free? Take a 3-month test ride of the magazine; check here for details.

If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You will need to join the MOA before you can post: click this register link to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

NOTE. Some content will be hidden from you. If you want to view all content, you must register for the forum if you are not a member, or if a member, you must be logged in.

It's difficult to pick really favorite books. I'll read everything by several authors. Some of them are:

Foundation series, by Asimov
Hitchhiker's Guide, et al
Incarnations of Immortality series, by Antony
Anything by Heinlein
Dickens, for when I need a laugh (?)
I've read Ron Ayres books, and continue to read David Hough's work.
Neil Peart has struck a chord also.
And not to forget Tolkien.

(not in order)
Anything by Dennis Lehane (author of Mystic River, and six other great books)
Any of the Life In Hell books by Matt Groening (if you don't who he is then you are LAME!)
Xxxenophile by Phil Foglio (an 'adult' comic book)
Assorted stuff by Hunter THompson
Star Wars: Tales From the Mos Eisley Cantina, edited by Kevin J. Anderson
I Am Spock by Leonard Nimoy. Fascinating and hilarious memoir of the actor's realtionship with 'The Vulcan.'
Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke. Depressing but compelling tale of the end of man's days on Earth.
Peanuts from 1950-52
Second the vote for Blue Highways!
And my Steinbeck pick, the only book of his I've read, The Short Reign Of Pippin IV. Silly tale of the return of the French Monarchy. I've seen two copies of it in my whole life and I have one of them.

Here are some pictures of what I have on my bookshelf that aren't either reference materials for singing (language dictionaries, translation books, etc) or all of my music. Enjoy, and I hope that you can make out some of the titles.

This is the shelf that has most of my motorcycle books, philosophy, travel writing, and random stuff. I worked in a library in high school so I have a real hard time keeping unlike books together. I still haven't done that ABC order thing though like I have with my CDs. Yes, people think I'm crazy.

I couldn't quite get this picture to turn out very well. This shelf has all of my Tolkien, Douglas Coupland, my favorite poets (Ginsberg, Neruda, Dylan Thomas), Kerouac, and speaking of beatniks the book I bought at City Lights in San Francisco Dirty Havana Trilogy.

fav reads

when pressed to select the fav, would have to LOTR.

others, in no order, and by no means exhaustive!!

Demille, Word of Honor and Charm School
Tolstoy Anything he wrote
Dostoevsky Anything, but esp Bros Karamazov
Hesse, esp Glass Bead Game
Hemingway anything.. someone remarked on his style, what I call the iceberg style, where only 10% is revealed., the rest to be discovered by careful reading. He could do this - he was talented enough. Unfortunately, his style redefined modern prose, and has dumbed it down to the point where most novels today are pale imitations of Hemingway. There are exceptions, but far too many just can't write well enough to copy him.

Faulkner Anything, esp Absolom Absolom and Light in August
George R R Martin Song of Fire and Ice series best fantasy in years
Stephen Donaldson Gap series great sci-fi, based loosely on Warner's Ring cycle
King Dark Tower series
Comac McCarthy anything, Sutree, All the Pretty Horses ect

I prefer history books. Military history is a favorite, due to my background, but I enjoy all types. Swinging the scale the complete other way, I enjoy science fiction just as much. The more 'hard science' fiction, the better.

- Some say the glass is half empty, some say the glass is half full, I say, are you going to drink that? - Lisa Clayman
- A bank is a place where they lend you an umbrella in fair weather and ask for it back when it begins to rain. --Robert Frost

a few of mine

[QUOTE=John Brase]I started re-reading Zen And The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance yesterday. First read was 25 or so years ago. My margin notes look pretty sophomoric now. Pirsig's second book (don't recall the title) is simply unreadable.

I have been a fan of Larry McMurtry's non fiction work before I started reading the novels. "Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen", is one of my favorite non fiction works. "The Last Picture Show" is a much better book than it was a movie and I liked the movie.
Louise Ehrlich wrote a book of essays "The Solace of Open Spaces", about Wyoming and the people who live there, each chapter is moving.

And now for something comepletely different any of the Michael Palin companion books about his travels around the world.
"Around the World in 80 Days"
"Pole to Pole"
"Hemingways Adventure"
"Full Circle"

I prefer history books. Military history is a favorite, due to my background, but I enjoy all types.

George MacDonald Fraser wrote a bunch of historical fiction staring a character: Flashman. Flashman was an admitted coward, a womanizer, an excellent horseman and an all around rapscalion. Set during the height of English colonial strength in the 1800s. The stories develop with historical accuracy except that fate places Flashman in the middle of the most historic battles of the English campains where he inadvertly (or wrongly) becomes a hero. The horrors of war and magnificent heroism against unbelievable odds are told, in different books, about battles in Russia, India, Usbekistan, Pakistan and Afganistan. The stories are quick paced and often amusing. One scene in the book Royal Flash, Flashman is in a sleigh racing to escape cossack horsemen. A Russian princess is stowed away in the sleigh so Flashie has his way with her, then to lighten the sleigh's load tosses her out into the snow. A true cad.

I would be sorta cool if people brought old favorite paperbacks to ralleys for exchange. Recommending a book never seems to get them read. Giving the book often does. To kick off the deal I will bring Royal Flash to the Chief Joseph ralley and give it away.

"tao te ching" by lao tzu is one book i wish every person on earth was required to read and think about. it takes 30 minutes read and will rattle in your head for 30 lifetimes.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

I also have a favorite that everyone should read but not mandatory that would be the Book of John by the Apostle of the same name. Probably take 45 min to read but if you let it it could change your life.

Other wise The Lord of the Rings/Hobbit great place to get lost in middle earth.
Favorite Clancy Red Storm rising.
Favorite Stienbeck Of Mice and Men

Two of my more recent favorites are: A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving (although I`ve not liked some of his other stuff) and The Short History Of Everything by Bill Bryson. But the book that got me started to enjoy to read is The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein. I love that one so much I read it to all of my 5 kids 4th grade class when they were younger. I was a bread driver at the time and was off every Wed. I read a 1/2 hour to 45 minutes and it took almost the year but the kids loved it so I had to do it for all of them. I actually got much better at it in the end.